Three quick observations from Thursday night’s 115-90 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves… SLAM DUNK – The Pistons rang out 2015 in style, snapping a three-game losing streak by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves. It wasn’t pretty early – the Pistons tied a season-low with a 15-point first quarter and fell behind by nine points early – but they were in no mood to quibble with the quality of the win after getting thrown out of whack since winning the four-overtime marathon in Chicago on Dec. 18. The Pistons went 1-3 over the ensuing four games, allowing opponents to shoot .482 and hitting bottom in Tuesday’s loss at New York when a .430 shooting Knicks team hit 54 percent of its shots and 61 percent in a 58-point second half. Andre Drummond grabbed 12 rebounds by halftime and finished with 23 points and 18 boards, missing his sixth 20-20 game of the season when he was pulled with nearly four minutes to play and the Pistons ahead by 25 points. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 19 points in the second half and finished with 22 while Reggie Jackson added 19 points and nine assists. The Pistons outrebounded Minnesota 52-36, had a 19-8 edge in second-chance points and a 21-10 advantage in fast-break points. They scored 30 or more points in each of the last three quarters. FREE THROW – Stan Van Gundy’s bench had righted itself after a rocky November, so he was understandably leering about the timing of Brandon Jennings’ return and insertion into the rotation over Steve Blake. But it was the Pistons bench that turned the momentum of Thursday’s game in the first half after the starters put forth another sluggish start. Anthony Tolliver and Aron Baynes played particularly good defense up front and Jennings got it going with a transition triple and an artful drive capped by a twisting layup. Tolliver had a terrific outing, hitting 5 of 7 triples and finishing with 15 points and five rebounds in only 16 minutes. Stanley Johnson had five points, four rebounds and three assists and Jennings finished with seven points, six rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes. 3-POINTER – The game marked the fifth time this season that the Pistons had a scheduling advantage, playing a team on a back to back while the Pistons were off the previous night. It was perhaps an exaggerated advantage against the Timberwolves, who were not only playing a back to back but were grinding out a third game in four nights going back to Monday’s loss at San Antonio. Beyond that, Minnesota played an 8 p.m. Eastern time game at home on Wednesday, lost an hour in the air flying to Detroit and then had the early 6 p.m. tipoff for New Year’s eve. The Pistons have been spotty in their previous four games with the advantage, though, going 2-2 – losing at Brooklyn one night after the Nets had played at Cleveland and losing to Memphis on Matt Barnes’ half-court buzzer beater. They also needed overtime to beat Phoenix at home in a similar situation. But in their last time with the advantage, they played perhaps their best all-around game of the season in thrashing Indiana by 22 points on Dec. 12. The Pistons are 1-5 in games where they are at the reverse disadvantage, winning the home opener against Utah but losing the last five such games. They have a total of eight of each type of game this season.
